Higher LEAP scores add fuel to debate over charter schools

Kevin Zansler/The Times-PicayuneStudent Deris Braggs invites Principal Keith Bartlett to a cookout at John Dibert Elementary School, where test scores have improved significantly since it converted to a charter school.

Two weeks ago, a busload of New Orleans community leaders trekked to Baton Rouge to petition the state board of education, venting frustration over the lack of a local voice in the dramatic changes to the city's school landscape.

They raised concerns about the ever-expanding, state-controlled charter school movement in New Orleans. The session marked one of the most tangible signs to date of a simmering backlash to the city's wholesale embrace of autonomous public schools.

Days later, the state released the latest round of LEAP test scores -- showing a third consecutive year of overall growth and raising hopes that New Orleans schools may eventually surpass the Jefferson Parish public schools.

Though the academic growth is indisputable, education officials, experts and community leaders disagree sharply about the scores' significance, yet another sign of mounting tensions over the direction of New Orleans school reforms.

Charter advocates contend the results prove that the radical decentralization of schools -- most students now attend charters -- has empowered educators, parents and students to achieve like never before.

"So many schools are stronger than they used to be. It's staggering," said Jay Altman, chief executive of FirstLine schools, the nonprofit organization that runs Arthur Ashe and S.J. Green charters.

He mentioned schools such as Sophie B. Wright Charter, which had improved before Katrina but has witnessed dramatic gains as a charter school in the past three years; Behrman Elementary, which has been turned around since the storm; and the first-year New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, where all of the ninth-graders scored at least approaching basic in reading.

But others, including those who recently addressed the state board, remain unconvinced. Test scores, they say, were rising before the flood -- in some cases at similar rates. Much of the academic progress stems from sharply increased school spending and a student population that includes fewer desperately poor students, some argue.

"You simply can't measure pre-Katrina against post-Katrina," said Karran Harper Royal, a longtime schools advocate. "The small amount of increase that we are seeing means less, for instance, when we think about four shuttered housing developments. Those children, some of the most challenging to educate, are not here."

The debate seems certain to grow more intense during the next two years as school leaders enter a crucial political period, during which a more permanent and cohesive governance structure will likely grow out of the balkanized landscape.

While leaders of the charter movement praise the changes, most agree that the state-run Recovery School District cannot oversee New Orleans schools forever -- yet none has outlined a clear vision for a return to local control. Meanwhile, as displayed by last month's Baton Rouge outpouring from about 45 people, some local advocates increasingly allege that state school leaders have shut out the community's voice in the fate of their own public schools.

The Orleans Parish School Board runs five schools, and the state-run Recovery School District runs 33. Between them, they oversee 47 charter schools. Some leaders, including state Superintendent Paul Pastorek and Recovery District chief Paul Vallas, advocate the continued rapid expansion of charters, to the point where nearly all city schools would operate independently.

Meanwhile, critics -- including some members of the Orleans Parish School Board -- have started pushing for more governance by local elected officials, as opposed to the self-appointed and self-perpetuating boards that run charters.

Among the chief concerns of those questioning wholesale chartering: The state has yet to create an effective oversight apparatus for charter schools or a clear rubric for evaluating their performance, beyond test scores.

Even among skeptics of a completely chartered system, many avoid advocating simply for a return to the old governance structure, in which all schools were run by the School Board and a superintendent of its choosing. Some, including Royal, note that granting more power over spending and curriculum to individual schools -- charter or otherwise -- has in some cases allowed strong principals and faculties to flourish. But she and others question the notion of an all-charter district -- unlike any in America -- as lacking in respect for community input under a local and democratically elected political entity.

Pastorek and Vallas -- or his successor, if he leaves, as he might soon -- will face a litmus test when charters begin to come up for renewals, as they must every five years by law. Charters created right after Katrina must clear that hurdle before the 2010-11 school year, and some schools are already undergoing a three-year review.

Amid the debate, a few facts are clear:

--Orleans is the only severely storm-damaged parish in Louisiana where test scores have risen steadily, with scores that could surpass those of Jefferson Parish in coming years -- a scenario considered unfathomable until recently.

--Viewed as a group, the New Orleans test scores have jumped substantially since 2005. For instance, the proportion of fourth-graders who meet or exceed grade-level work in English rose from 44 percent in 2005 to 59 percent this year, a gain of one-third. Eighth-graders improved more, jumping from 26 percent to 42 percent. High school scores have also improved, dramatically so in math, with 58 percent meeting or exceeding state standards this year compared with 38 percent in 2005.

--Test scores were on the rise before Katrina and the state takeover of schools. Between 2002 and 2005, for instance, the proportion of fourth-graders meeting the basic standard in English rose from 31 percent to 44 percent -- a rate similar to the post-Katrina growth. The English scores of eighth-graders, however, were relatively stagnant in that period, inching up from 22 percent to 26 percent. High school scores were similarly mixed, rising in math but stagnating in English.

--Philosophical debates aside, the test scores of students in New Orleans during the past decade -- under various waves of reform and political upheaval -- show strong growth overall. Since the inception of the LEAP test in 1999, the percentages of all fourth- and eighth-graders meeting the basic standard have roughly doubled in both English and math. The same goes for high school math; high school English scores have grown more slowly, but still substantially.

Competing analyses

Not surprisingly, observers view the trends in different ways, often in sync with their ideologies. Leslie Jacobs, a chief architect of the charter movement and a former state board member, calls the post-Katrina trends "unbelievably powerful."

"Very strong transformational change is going on here, not reform around the edges," she said.

School Board member Lourdes Moran called the same results "moderate gains, just like (schools) were showing pre-Katrina."

Fair comparisons of overall academic growth before and after Katrina are difficult. And focusing on citywide performance masks strikingly different school-by-school results, allowing people to cherry-pick schools where scores have soared, dipped or stagnated to make their arguments.

Also, some schools did not exist before the storm or now educate an entirely different population of students. And a few, such as Crocker Arts and Technology School and Akili Academy, started with younger students, who do not yet take the state's standardized tests.

Money or management?

Vallas attributes the gains in schools he operates within the Recovery District to an extended school day and year, a more standardized curriculum and the recruitment of "top talent" through programs such as Teach for America and The New Teacher Project.

Jacobs said the creation of the state-run district provided a "fresh start" -- by marginalizing the existing bureaucracy, its employees and policies and eliminating the teachers union contract.

Such explanations do not account for the potential role played by increased school spending.

The Orleans Parish district spent $7,877 per student in the last full school year before Hurricane Katrina. Last school year, Vallas spent, conservatively, about $12,900 per student -- not including disaster-related capital costs. Those figures apply only to the schools directly run by the Recovery District -- not charters, whose spending varies but generally is lower.

"We've got more resources that have poured into many of the schools in the past three years," said Luis Miron, acting director of the Loyola Institute for Quality and Equity in Education at Loyola University and a member of McDonogh 42 charter school's board. "We know that those resources are starting to wane."

Miron, who also is dean of Loyola's College of Social Sciences, credits Vallas for his leadership, but adds, "It's pretty clear that the (reform) model is based on temporary support, either from the superintendent -- who is not going to remain here -- or from many of the teachers who come here on a temporary basis."

Vallas' critics argue he has spent unprecedented sums to raise test scores quickly, but given little thought to making the gains permanent. Vallas has also aggressively tried to convert many schools to charters, suggesting he is hoping charters will find ways to sustain the progress, partly through aggressive fundraising and teacher recruitment.

Vallas contends he can carry on without infusions of disaster aid.

His new budget, however, raises class sizes in upper grades and cuts dozens of support positions such as nurses, social workers and security guards. The full effect of these changes likely will not be felt until after Vallas leaves the system, points out Lance Hill, a civil rights expert at Tulane University.

Changing demographics

Some also question whether the academic gains are attributable to the drop in the number of extremely poor families living in New Orleans since the storm. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates for July 2005 show 12 percent of the city's population subsisting on a household income of $10,000 or less. Two years later, the proportion was down to 6.4 percent.

"Some of the most academically needy children are not here," Royal said.

Others counter that the vast majority of Orleans public school students are still poor.

John Alford, principal of Langston Hughes Academy, points to the strong performance of KIPP Central City. "I've been to that school and seen those kids. They're regular kids from the 'hood.'?"

The public will likely never know exactly which factors contributed most to the academic gains.

The game plan here was to use "a number of different strategies to improve schools all at once," said Michael Schwam-Baird, research director for Tulane University's Cowen Institute. "A lot of explanations pieced together provide the most compelling answer," Schwam-Baird said of why scores have improved.

The decrease in the number of families living in extreme poverty, for instance, cannot fully explain the gains, "but I have a feeling something like that would have some effect," Schwam-Baird said. But so might more money for smaller classes. Or less red tape.

Long-term trends in test scores always mean more than one, two or even three years of growth.

Said Miron: "If we can sustain these gains over the next three to five years, that will send a message to the rest of the nation that New Orleans can be a success in a key area -- public education -- that was an eyesore pre-Katrina." . . . . . . .

Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3497. Darran Simon can be reached at 504.826.3386. Brian Thevenot can be reached at bthevenot@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3482.